SECTION-1: Growth of Hindu Mahasabha and its Emergence as an All-India Force, 1938–1941

After the 1937 elections, the Congress swept the polls with respect to the Hindu seats. The Muslim League did not cut much ice in Bengal, as elsewhere, and Fazlul Haq's Krishak Praja Party came to the Bengal Legislature with a fairly large representation, with Haq defeating Nazimuddin at Patuakhali; and “it looked as if the reactionary Muslim elements had received a death blow”. If the Congress had responded to Haq's entreaty to form a coalition ministry in Bengal with himself as Premier, Bengal “would have developed into a strong and healthy province with the common efforts of representative Hindus and Muslims”. But as Dr Mookerjee says, “Congress policy regarding acceptance of office was still uncertain. Sarat Bose himself was even then deluding himself with such a declaration, ‘The Congress has come to the Legislature to end the Constitution and not to work it.’ … It (Congress) was not prepared to co-operate or form a coalition with anyone. It must rule as a single party.” So the Congress High Command did not allow the Bengal Congress to join with Fazlul Haq's party, thus throwing Bengal “at the mercy of British-cum-League domination”. Accordingly, Haq joined the League in forming a ministry on 1 April 1937, headed by himself. He inducted N.R. Sarkar, B.P. Singh Roy and Maharaja of Cossimbazar as the Caste Hindu ministers. Nalini Ranjan Sarkar, the Calcutta financier who had made his fortune in the insurance business, joined the Gandhian section of the Congress party at the time of split of the ‘Big Five’ into contending factions and had become an implacable enemy of the Bose brothers. He forfeited his Congress membership for joining the Haq Ministry as Finance Minister against the wishes of the High Command but resigned from the Cabinet, following the Congress lead, at the outbreak of war in 1939. At the behest of the clever Leaguers like Suhrawardy, Sahabuddin and Nazimuddin, the communal Haq Ministry steadily went on with its well-planned activities for crushing the legitimate rights of the Hindus till 1941. While Sarat Bose faltered publicly in fighting against Muslim oppression, as minister Nalini Sarkar secured maximum possible concessions to Hindu interests by hints of a possible resignation’. But the Ministry used the immense patronage at its disposal for consolidating its position.